Ladybird Tuesday: A Second ‘Do You Know’ Book

22/01/2013

I remember as a child sitting down with my Dad to look up some facts about planets as part of my school science homework. In those days the only way to do so was to sit down with some books yet I'm pretty sure that when I have to do similar with Little Miss C and Master C we'll be using the Internet instead and I think I feel a bit sad about that. Yes Google is very useful, but there was a certain satisfaction in finding the answers there on my bookshelf. My choice for today's Ladybird Tuesday is a book that fact loving children would have jumped upon at the time – A second 'Do You Know' Book.

This book is actually part of the Ladybird Key Words Easy Readers series (series 641) where they had six factual books tagged on the end of the learning to read series. These were conveniently labelled as Book One to Six and this second Do You Know book is Book Four in the series – if that makes sense – and there were a total of three Do You Know books. Like the first Do You Know book this was first published in 1971 and the third one followed in 1972.

The aim was that these six books linked with the different stages of the reading scheme. Book One sat with the third level of the reading scheme, book two the fourth and so on. All this explanation makes me think that they could have made it a bit simpler though!

The facts and subjects covered stretch from the planets to sea life and dams to kangaroos. Each double page spread covers a different topic with the right hand page always containing a colour illustration. At the bottom of the text page is a list of the new words that have been introduced in the text. As with many of these books there's a slightly dated feel to it, but it hasn't aged as much as many other books have – especially when you consider that it's over 40 years old. The statement at the end of the page on the Great Wall of China made me smile though: "People can fly into China by aeroplane" – I guess that back then this may have seemed quite amazing to some children, but in the modern day it does seem a slightly strange thing to say.

If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thanks!

I've also compiled an index of all the Ladybird Tuesday posts to date – organised by series. It satisfies my inner geek and hopefully will also be of interest to others too!

Hi,
This Tuesday my Ladybird book is a fiction title from the Easy Reading Series 606D, ‘Well-Loved Tales’, Snow-White and Rose-Red.
I go a little off-piste with this one as it really is my all time favourite. And, yes, the front cover and spine are in a shocking state, there is childish writing all over the book and my name is written in it to prevent it being pilfered by my sisters.http://mrsfoxs.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/ladybird-tuesday-well-loved-tales-snow.html

I remember reading these when I was younger and now my son has some that have been handed down. I like them because they don’t ‘sugar coat’ things! In Chicken Licken the fox eats them, which is the way I remember it, OK maybe not that pleasant but much more realistic!!!